The Inside 3D Printing Show's Most Eye-Catching Projects

The 2014 Inside 3D Printing show featured the snazziest new 3D printers as well as some impressive works of art.

When I dropped by the Inside 3D Printing Conference and Expo at New York City's Javits Center, I was struck by how much it has grown in just a year—seemingly doubled in size. It’s good to know that interest among both business and consumers in this young and exciting field remains high.

Familiar favorites were there, like 3D Systems, Solidoodle, [x]object, Formlabs, and Sculpteo, along with newcomers such as XYZprinting, the 3D printing division of Taiwanese manufacturing giant New Kinpo Group. XYZprinting rented the show’s second largest booth to show off Da Vinci 1.0, a $500 3D printer now on sale through Amazon, as well as two second-generation Da Vinci models that will feature dual extruders for two-color printing. And speaking of color printing, botObjects showed off its ProDesk3D, which it bills as the first full-color desktop 3D printer for home and business. This single-extruder model creates multiple shades of color by mixing different-colored filaments in the heating chamber.

In addition to the printers themselves, design firms, freelancers, and artists showed off some rather stunning creations. WhiteClouds can create, from a client’s concept, designs such as futuristic 3D cities, either as CAD files or printed models. Designer Kurt Wendt brought a fantastic dragon he’d created and printed. And a large corner of a room was devoted to massive art objects such as walls of a house and a Ford Torino (pictured), covered with a 3D-printed “exoskeleton” that he creates using his liquid metal transfer technique.

But enough said. You can see some of the more intriguing printers and 3D-printed objects we encountered at Inside 3D Printing for yourself.